


Change Is Kinda The Best

by Joey_TheWriter



Series: Change [3]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Juke comes to terms with their feelings, Julie shows Luke Perfect Harmony, Music Festival, No beta; we die like sunset curve, Pride Festival, Reggie and Flynn Friendship and nothing else, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, big brother Reggie, free hugs, juke fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joey_TheWriter/pseuds/Joey_TheWriter
Summary: Julie and the Phantoms get a gig to play at the LA Pride Festival. This is what the gang does afterwards, enjoying the rest of their day at the Pride Festival.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: Change [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961311
Comments: 12
Kudos: 84





	1. Free Hugs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ever_Whovian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_Whovian/gifts), [booksarefriends](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksarefriends/gifts).



> You don't have to have read the other parts of my series to understand this one.  
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> (Also I have never been to a pride festival since these sorta things happen in huge cities and I live way to far away from cities like that.. so bear with me. I know there are floats involved, but bear with my imagination that there are also side stages in side streets where people gather!)

There had been a lot of changes, ever since they had played at the Orpheum and got saved by Julie’s magic witch hug. Things had started off slow, them being visible for a few moments longer after a show, letting them enjoy their bows and soak in the applause for a few moments longer. Which had been really nice, obviously and thankfully not the end of it.

The next thing they noticed was that sometimes they got visible at odd hours, like that time Ray found Reggie in front of the fridge in the middle of the afternoon, or that time where Reggie and Flynn had talked via the notebook only to notice that she could suddenly see him and have an actual conversation with him. That had been really nice and thankfully still not the end of it.

But the biggest change yet they discovered happened after they had played the show on that small side stage during the LA pride parade. It was still a miracle that they even got hired as an act, since the band was barely four months old and this was LA after all, but Flynn had pulled every string and managed to get them the spot.

And it was the best gig they had played so far.

They were on literal fire up on stage.

But it wasn’t like they had never performed in front of bigger crowds before, after all, they had played the freaking Orpheum out of all places. And it’s not like they had never managed to capture the crowds in front of them, get them to sway to the music and dance along, but never had they played for a crowd that had shouted their own songs back at them.

These people out there, that still chanted for them to sing another encore and had known the lyrics to many of their songs, they had sung with them, performed with them. It was thrilling, it was magical, it was … there were no words to really describe it. It was everything and more.

“This!” Luke said and pointed towards the crowd that hadn’t stopped chanting for another encore. “This is what I’ve wanted for the band since day one…”

“I felt so alive out there!” Reggie said, staring at the stage longingly. He wanted to go back out there so badly, but they used up the entirety of their time slot and the next band was already setting up their stuff…

“They knew our songs!” Julie said her heart still beating fast in her chest. “They sang our songs back to us!” She paused, motioning with her hands for a better lack of words. “That was- oh my god, amazing doesn’t even begin to make the cut of what that felt like!” She laughed and put her hands around Alex’s arm. “And they loved your song!”

“Only because- “, Alex started to say, but was cut off by Reggie.

“When will you ever start to own how awesome you are?” Reggie put his hand right over Julies on Alex’s arm. “Seriously dude, they loved you and that song and not just because we’re at a pride parade! So, for once, just take the compliment and fucking own it!”

“Okay, I will”, Alex said with a steadily growing grin on his face, “I really love you guys!” Alex added and pulled his bandmates into a big crushing group hug, one that had become a ritual after every performance they had done ever since the Orpheum three and a half months ago.

Of course the hug didn’t last too long, since Julie still had to pack up her stuff, after all the parade was long before over and there will be other bands on this stage, they needed to make room for the next band.

“Oh my gosh, you guys were amazing!” Flynn was running towards them, just as Julie was closing the case of her keyboard, literally jumping on Julie with a hug of her own and squishing the living daylight out of her best friend. “I’m so glad Ray got some of his work buddies to film the whole thing, because now we’ve got so much footage of the performance for your YouTube channel”, she gushed and noticed the guys faces so she added with a huge smile, “which is a really good thing!”

“Awesome!” Reggie said and held up his hand for one of their little mock high fives, something that had become a thing between him and Flynn ever since that day in the studio a few weeks ago. But to their utter surprise, it wasn’t a mock high five, because for the first time ever, their hands connected and that quieted them all down, Luke, Alex and Julie staring at Reggie and Flynn who’s hands were pressed together, staring at each other in shock.

“Can you see that?” Luke leaned towards Julie his eyes never leaving the two hands.

“Yeah”, Julie said with a slow nod, blinking. “Oh my god!”

Flynn had been able to see the boys from time to time now, that’s nothing new, and they also figured out a while ago, that it was always most likely to happen like shortly after they had played a gig. But never had she been able to touch one of the boys, they had tried of course, but until now the boys had never been tangible for Flynn.

“Does this mean…” Luke said and trailed off before he stepped up to Flynn and just did what he was very likely about to say, placing a hand on her shoulder and for once not phasing through her. “Now this is rad!” He exclaimed, looking like someone had just said Christmas would happen a few months earlier this year.

“What does this mean?” Julie asked and stared at her friends, Reggie and Flynn still frozen mid high five, Luke with one hand on Flynn’s shoulder and Alex anxiously biting at his lip. Luke smiled back at her.

“It means that we can finally include the best manager ever into our group hugs!” He exclaimed, pulling Alex forward, slipping one arm around him and the other around Flynn motioning for Reggie and Julie to join in.

“Okay this is even better than before!” Reggie said with a big grin on his face.

“What does this mean?” Alex asked and stared at his friends. “Are we… Are we becoming humans again?”

“I don’t know”, Luke said with a shrug, “but it’s like Reggie said… out there on the stage, I felt more alive than ever… maybe it’s that?”

“Or Julie is doing another one of her magic witch hug tricks!” Reggie exclaimed and grinned at the girl who rolled her eyes.

“I’m still not a witch, Reg”, she said with a sigh.

“That you know off!” Reggie shot back.

“Maybe you should ask Willie”, Flynn said. “You were meeting him after the show, right? Maybe he knows something…”

“Yeah”, Alex said with a nod. “Sure, I’ll ask him.”

“And in the meantime, as much as I would love to continue this, I really want to try out this new _being-able-to-touch-lifers-thing_ and go out into the crowd! Who’s with me?”

“I’m in”, Flynn said with a grin, hooking her arm with Reggie’s. “There was this country singer two blocks down, I’m pretty sure that’s something you’d love to see!” She added.

“The last thing I want to do is listen to country music…” Luke said with a huff, shaking his head. “How about, we meet up in a few hours by the pier?”

“Yeah, okay”, Alex agreed, and Reggie nodded eagerly, literally on the edge to bounce off. If it weren’t for the fact, that Flynn was going to come with him, watching the country singer, he would have probably already poofed there. 

“Three hours?” Julie suggested and so that was decided.

Flynn took charge and led Reggie through the crowds of people around them, keeping hold of Reggie’s hand to not lose him, who was staring at everything and everyone with wide eyes. The band has dressed somewhat appropriately, with Reggie for once wearing a bi pride tank top instead of his usual black or white shirt, but he was still dressed very blandly, compared to so many people around them.

“Flynn!” Reggie whisper shouted. “That dude is wearing make-up!” Reggie couldn’t help to stare at the man who is wearing the gay pride colours as eyeshadow. “That’s so cool!” 

“Damn his winged eyeliner is even better than mine…” She noted and grinned. “You know, a bit of eyeliner could elevate your usual style, with those boots and your leather jacket.” She grinned. “Lots of Rockstar’s from the 90s and early 2000s wore eyeliner or painted their nails.” She laughs as she pulls him further into the crowd. “Some still do.”

“Oh, I want to try that one day!” Reggie said with an exited gleam in his eyes. “Why does that lady have a sign like that?” He says next, pointing to a woman on the side of the road with a huge sign at her feet and a pink, blue and purple feather boa around her neck.

“The one with the _Hugs from a Mum_?” Flynn asks. “Well, that’s just a thing, I guess. She is offering hugs to anybody that needs them, you know. Like people who don’t have supportive family or friends.”

“That’s so… woke? Is that the right word?” Reggie said. “Alex taught us that word, but he had no idea what it means either, so…” Flynn laughed, shaking her head, opening her mouth to explain what the word meant, but Reggie didn’t wait for her explanation. “I’m gonna go over there…”, he decided and bounced off to the woman, that seemed to be the age of their mums… or well… only Flynn’s considering that Reggie’s parents had to be in their 60s or 70s by now… Flynn shook her head because that was just too weird. And then her head kicked into gear.

“Reggie!” She called after the idiot bouncing through the crowd, but he either didn’t hear her or he didn’t care. She wanted to tell him, that it maybe wasn’t the best idea to hug some stranger, because who knew if their newfound tangibility was only with Flynn or with anybody. They hadn’t tested it. So, what if he wants to hug that woman and phases right through her? She scrambled after him in an attempt to stop him. An impossible feat.

“Can I get a hug?” Flynn heard him ask the lady with the sign.

“Oh, of course, honey!” The lady said immediately and pulled him into a hug, one that made Reggie smile widely. He liked hugging Luke, Alex and Julie, no, he loved that, but there is something different in the way a mum is hugging someone. He had no idea how much he had missed that, but he did. He missed his mum. He had missed his parents for a very long time now… Even back when he was still alive and had them around, he had missed them…

“Thank you!” He said after she let him go.

“It’s alright, honey”, the lady said with a kind smile.

“So that worked”, Flynn stated and let out a relieved sigh.

“What worked?” Reggie asked confused.

“You, hugging that lady! I was worried you might, you know-“ She cast a hasty glance around them to make sure no one was paying them any special attention, before she continued to say, “phase through her or something like that.”

“Oh”, Reggie said. “Right yeah, I kinda forgot about that.” He said with a sheepish grin. Flynn let out an annoyed huff, before she shook her head and smiled.

“You’re really something else!” Flynn said with a grin.

“But you love me anyways!” He replied.

“Yeah like that annoying bigger brother I never got…” She shot back and stuck out her tongue at him. He moved his head to the side, looking at her with big eyes, before a grin spread across his face.

“Big brother Reggie, huh?” He said. “I like that!”

“Great, now come on!” She said and grabbed his hand to pull him towards their destination. “We got so much stuff to see!”

They spent the whole afternoon watching different live acts, that country singer was pretty awesome, but she had to end her performance fifteen minutes after they arrived at the stage. After that, they just walked down the road, trying to find something interesting, which wasn’t hard at all and in Reggie’s case hugging every stranger who had a similar sign like that lady, that actually became Reggie’s most favourite thing to do now that he knows that he can actually touch people again.

They had been waling towards the pier this whole time, obviously, since they had told the others they would meet up with them after a few hours and it was very easy to get side-tracked in these crowds. But then the pier came into view and with that apparently came Flynn’s favourite Chili-Fries stand.

“I think I see Luke and Julie”, Reggie said to Flynn as she got into line of the food truck. “I’ll see you down there, since I’m not exactly in the mood to wait in line for food that I will never be able to eat”, he added and shrugged.

“Understandable”, Flynn said with a nod of her head. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.” He smiled and took off, the lifer-way, walking down the steps and then the beach, he had so much to tell them! All the things he had done in the past 3 hours. It wasn’t surprising in the slightest that he didn’t realize in the slightest just how close Julie and Luke had actually been sitting, he didn’t even really notice the guitar on Luke’s lap to be honest, that thing was after all, just another part of Luke.

Naturally, Reggie just plopped down into the sand right next to them and started to gush about the amazing afternoon he had with Flynn, telling them about the free hugs, that amazing country singer and some other shows they had seen…


	2. Perfect Harmony

Reggie and Flynn were gone faster than any of the others realised, and Alex had started rocking back and forth on his feet, obviously itching to meet up with Willie, which was understandable, who knows how much time they had here. They really should use every moment they had, because time is a precious thing for all of them.

“Okay, so, see you later I guess, don’t want to keep Willie waiting for too long…” He trailed off with a faint blush spreading across his face. “I’ll ask him about the … touching thing.”

“Have fun!” Julie said with a smile.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” Luke added and wiggled his eyebrows at the drummer who just sighed and shook his head at his friend.

“Back at ya”, Alex said, did the same eyebrow wiggle at Luke and Julie and poofed out.

“Dork”, Luke muttered and shook his head, before he looked back to Julie. “So, what do people do at these parade thingies?” She grinned, grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the backstage area, down into the crowd.

It was an afternoon filled watching different bands and singers, swaying to the music, singing along sometimes as well and simply enjoying life as if they were ordinary teenagers, not a girl and a ghost…

Eventually they ended up at the beach close to where they said they would meet up with the others. Someone had put up this huge inflatable rainbow in the middle of the sand and pride flags of all shades were swaying in the ocean breeze.

“It’s really something seeing how different everything is since well…” Luke said as he stared at all the couples taking pictures in front of the inflatable, wearing pride flags of all colours on their bodies. “I wish it had been like that, before we… you know…”

“Yeah”, Julie said with a nod. “I mean, it’s not perfect yet, but we’ve come a long way in the past 25 years.” She tucked on his hand, pulling him down the steps to the beach. “And now we really need to take a picture,” she decided, her curls bouncing behind her as she jumped down the last few steps and landed in the soft sand with a laugh. They were both still on a high after their own performance a few hours ago and it was pretty clear it would take them a lot longer to come down from it.

They asked a random dude if he would take a picture of them and a few minutes later they walked down the beach, before they settled down somewhere closer to the water, the sun had begun to set now and there was music everywhere. It almost felt like… Julie decided not to finish that thought in her head for now, but the butterflies in her stomach didn’t care. It’s been an amazing day, a perfect kick-off for the summer that is going to be ahead of them now. Filled with hopefully a lot more shows like the one they had just played.

“It’s crazy though how much has changed in such a small amount of time…” Julie said with a soft smile, watching the waves break onto the shore. “Few months ago, everything had been so different, I mean, I wasn’t able to sing a note, let alone play the piano and then you guys poofed into the studios… And now, we’ve played in front of thousands of people, and I can’t imagine not doing that for the rest of my life!” She smiled at Luke for a moment, the butterflies in her stomach soaring high, shifting her gaze to her hands, playing with the sand around her feet. “I’ve actually written a new song.”

“Really?” Luke said, leaning forward almost instantly intrigued. “What’s it about?”

“Us”, she answered. “Not us as in the band, but us as in … you and me…”

“So… it’s a…”

“It’s a duet”, Julie said. “Actually, it’s kinda a love song…” She had no idea when exactly she had decided that she wanted to show him the song she had written all those months ago, but… She’s done with all that waiting around, she’s done pretending that whatever there is between them is purely platonic, after all even her dad had noticed that there was something there.

“Oh”, Luke said with a nod, turning around so he was completely facing her, but she was still stoically looking at the waves crashing at the shore. “Can I – Can you show me?” Julie knew that she was the one that brought it up and admitting that she had written a love song to the guy it’s about is one thing, but actually showing him the song is a lot more difficult. She took a shaky breath before she fished the piece of paper out of her bag, where she had kept it for months now.

Julie unfolded the paper carefully, staring at the words she had written down during English literature class that had happened to be the one lesson she had right after dance class, right after … that dance. She stared at the first few lines, before she practically shoved the piece of paper at Luke, whose eyes flit over the paper in a matter of seconds.

“Julie…” He said looking up with from the paper with his big puppy dog eyes and she couldn’t help the smile that was slowly spreading across her face. “This is a beautiful song!” He was casting a quick glance around the beach and noticed fairly easy that no one was paying them any attention, before he willed his acoustic to poof into his hands.

“Luke!” Julie exclaimed. “You can’t just do that!”

“Don’t worry”, he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “No one noticed!” He put the paper into the sand in front of him, put a few smaller stones on the edges to keep it in place before he started to strum the chords, completely focused on trying to get the melody right. “Okay so like this, right?” He said after a moment and started to play the actual song.

“A bit slower at first”, Julie cut in. “The melody can get a bit faster once we hit the chorus, and well, the first part of the verse is gonna be yours to sing, if you… you know… want to…” He grinned at her. 

“Of course, I’d want to sing it with you”, he said with that perfect smile of his that made the butterflies in her stomach soar even higher. “Anything for you Julie, you know that.”

“Then let’s try this!”, she said with a smile matching his.

“Got it, boss”, he said with a smirk before he focused on the lyrics in front of him, while he started to strum the chords on his acoustic.

 _“Step into my world, Bittersweet love story ‘bout a girl, shook me to the core, voice like an angel, I’ve never heard before.”_ Julie had always known that Luke was just as an amazing singer as she was and the sincerity in his voice as he softly sang the first lines of her song made her breath hitch in her throat for a moment. To be honest, she was glad that he was still focused on the paper in front of him, because if he would have looked at her, while he sang that song… She had no idea what she would do. She was so deep in her head that she almost missed to sing her part in the song.

“ _Here in front of me, they’re shining so much brighter, than I have ever seen, Life can be so mean, but when he goes, I know he doesn’t leave.”_ By the time she ended her verse she was grinning. “And we sing that part together”, she adds to which Luke answers with a nod, flashing her a smile, before they dove into the chorus together.

 _“The truth is finally breaking through, two worlds collide when I’m with you, our voices rise and soar so high…”_ There aren’t a lot of people around them, but those few that were, have started to listen into the song, soft smiles on their faces as they watched the two of them sing. “W _e come to life when we’re in perfect harmony, woah-oa-oa, whoa-oa-oa, perfect harmony, woah-oa-oa, woah-oa-oa, perfect harmony.”_

“There should be a second verse…” Luke said as he peered at the paper, “we definitely need to write one!” He stopped playing, but his fingers never left the guitar.

“I never said it was finished”, Julie said with a laugh. “It’s a duet after all.” He grinned.

“Okay, so which one of us would sing these lines?” He said and pointed to the last 5 lines of the song she had written so far.

“I was thinking that I could do the first line, then you do the next line, similar to what we do in Finally Free?” She suggests.

“Yeah, that… that sounds great”, he said and started to play again.

 _“We say we’re friends”,_ Julie sings, her eyes closed, her voice high and clear, making sure he got legit goosebumps, or ghostbumps, as Reggie loved to call them now.

“ _We play pretend”_ He sang, sincere and soft, smiling at the amazing girl right beside him that made his life, or afterlife, so much more worth to live.

 _“You’re more to me”_ , she sang again, eyes still closed, a perfect smile on her face.

 _“We create”,_ he sang back to her and that’s when she opened her eyes, staring straight at him as she sang the last words.

 _“The perfect harmony.”_ They stared at each other, the words of what they had just sang meant so much to the both of them. They truly had been pretending to be friends, best friends, but only that and Luke wasn’t sure if he would want to go back to that. Of course, he wanted to be her best friend, he wanted to be that for all of eternity.

He came to terms with what he felt for Julie quite a while ago.

Growing up, Luke was sure, that music was his only passion. His first love. Of course, he had loved his parents and his bandmates, but music is what he needed to breathe, and he had never met anyone who understood that.

But Julie did, she was like him.

Music flowed through their veins, and made their heart beat faster.

Music is what they are.

Music is what they both need to survive.

Music is what makes them, them.

Luke Patterson never stood a chance not to fall in love with Julie Molina, the girl with the voice of an angel. He loves her and this song proved that she feels the same way.

“So…” Julie said, breaking the silence between them. She was waiting for something, some sort of reaction about the song, about what she just told him, but the only thing he could think off, was how amazing that smile of hers is and that he’d wanted nothing more than to just kiss those lips. He had never been one to do much thinking, which is why he had started to lean towards Julie before the fact of what he was doing there even reached his brain.

“This has been the best day of my life!” Reggie shouted in exact that moment, running towards Julie and Luke with an over excited grin on his face. “First Flynn took me to see that country singer, and man that girl could sing, not as good as you can sing, Julie, but she had that country voice thing going on!” He was talking a mile per second, his eyes shining bright from excitement. Neither Luke nor Julie could be angry that he had somewhat interrupted something between them… Not completely at least.

“I met so many new people today and everyone was so happy to give free hugs! Man, I really do love 2020!” He plopped down between Julie and Luke, oblivious to their matching blushes. “What did you do all day?” Reggie asked as he stared at his friends.

“Basically, the same thing… Watched a few bands and stuff”, Luke shrugged and cleared his throat, before he moved to fold Julie’s song back up.

“Where is Flynn now by the way?” Julie asked and searched the beach.

“Oh, she wanted to get some Chili-Fries, the line was pretty long, and I didn’t want to wait and then have to watch her eat…” He shrugged. “Saw you guys down here, so…” He trailed off because Alex decided to poof into existence right next to them.

“Hey guys”, he said as he plopped down next to Reggie. “Awesome day, right?”

“Yeah”, Julie and Luke said at the same time, sharing a small smile before they returned their attention two the other two people in their found family. That achad really been an amazing day.


End file.
